


oh love, you were a sickly child

by cm (mumblemutter)



Series: down there in the dark [2]
Category: Thor (Comics), Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Age Play, Community: norsekink, Death References, Hurt/Comfort, Incest, Kink Meme, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-12
Updated: 2013-01-12
Packaged: 2017-11-25 04:57:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/635356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mumblemutter/pseuds/cm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thor and Loki and yet another cave.</p>
            </blockquote>





	oh love, you were a sickly child

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this prompt](http://norsekink.livejournal.com/11337.html?thread=26188873).

Loki returns from the caves changed.

He ensconces himself in his rooms, and Thor only learns of his return through the tittering of servant girls, arguing over whose turn it is to serve food to the youngest prince of Asgard. "My lord," one of them starts when Thor approaches her. "We meant no disrespect towards -"

"Enough," he says. "Loki has returned? For how long?"

A second girl intervenes when the first one only stares, wide-eyed and gormless. "Three days, my lord."

"I see. And he has not left his rooms since?" They turn to one another in consternation, and Thor loses patience. "Give me the tray," he says. "I will bring my brother his food."

-

Loki no longer holds his female form. He snarls at Thor when Thor dares to glance down at the flat planes of his chest, grabs the tray from him. "Have you been reduced to servitude, brother? Surely Odin would not subject his brightest son to such indignity."

"I have come to see how you are. I was not informed you had returned."

"As you can clearly see, I am fine. And if I had wanted you to know of my return I would have informed you. Now leave."

Thor settles the tray on a table. "You should eat, Loki. You look unwell."

"What do you know of it," Loki says. He staggers backwards, his pale face turned even more pale, as if all the life had been drained out of it. "I have no more milk for you to leech, you vile, perverted creature. Leave me be."

"Loki," Thor says, and catches his brother before he falls. He holds Loki to his chest and Loki fights him briefly before allowing Thor to guide him to his bed.

"I have lost it all," he says, as Thor draws the sheets up to his chin. Thor has not heard such despair, not in centuries.

"You still have me."

Loki merely turns his head away, does not even bother to respond with the requisite barb.

-

It is several days later that Thor decides Loki should go on a hunt with him. They had enjoyed hunting together when they were young, although that was a long time ago and even then Loki would be given to occasional bouts of spite and pettiness whenever Thor proved to be the better hunter. But they are warriors bred and true, and Thor can think of no other way to reach out to him.

"Your brother, Thor," Fandral says. "Surely that is unwise. Loki is more likely to take us as prey than any manner of beast."

"You don't have to come with us," Thor says. "If you cannot hold your tongue I would prefer you did not."

He leaves Fandral gaping, calling out after him, "I did not mean the insult, Thor. But surely you must understand."

Thor understands. Thor understands that Loki has spilled all their blood, caused irreparable damage to the realms, wreaked havoc whenever he was so much as faintly bored.

And yet here he is, hidden in his rooms, with nary a villainous plot in sight.

Thor cannot bear it.

-

"Are you mad? Why would I want to hunt with you? Do I look as if I'm interested in contributing to your constant need to prove your manhood?"

"We are going," Thor decides. "Tomorrow, at dawn."

It is only because Loki is not himself that he does not argue, that when Thor comes to his chambers as the sun rises, he follows Thor without complaint, even when Thor tells him, "We will walk."

They trek through the dark forest for three days and three nights. Loki does not speak, not even to deride Thor for his stupidity, his clumsiness, his inability or unwillingness to scheme and plot and lie. For needing the simplicity of the hunt, though it was not that long ago that Loki would fight beside him, aiding in his own way. Thor might not have appreciated Loki's trickery then, may have mocked him for it, but that is just another in a long line of regrets that Thor has to carry, a fist around his heart that aches whenever Loki falls.

"Are you all right, brother," Thor asks.

Loki merely shrugs and replies with flat disinterest, "Let's hope these beasts of yours are worth slaying, Thor. It would be a shame for us to have come so far and return with nothing."

"Aye," Thor says.

-

The venom from a linnormr has sent more than one Asgardian to Valhalla, and even Thor is vulnerable to it. He remembers little, afterwards.

Only Loki screeching at him, calling him all manner of names as he struggles to speak. "Hush," he wants to say, "your voice brays," but only a gasp emerges from his mouth, as soft as a kitten's. Somehow the forest disappears, and in the darkness Thor falls. Down and down and down he goes, into the blackest of nights.

He awakes fevered, overly hot on one side and cold on the other. There is a fire flickering in front of him, and as he groans a shadow takes shape from the far side. "Do not move, you fool," Loki says, kneeling in front of him. "The poison is coursing through your system. Any energy you spend will only quicken your death."

"I am not yet ready for death," Thor says, but Loki merely rolls his eyes.

"I should let you die," he says. "Here, in ignominy. A fitting death for one such as you." But his hand comes up, to soothe over Thor's forehead. His skin is cold, and Thor turns away, attempts to avoid his touch, to crawl towards the fire and heat.

"You are burning with fever." Loki sighs. "You need cold, not heat." He drags Thor roughly by his cape to the far corner of the cave and drops him, before his fingers start pulling at Thor's armor. Thor tries to bat him away, but Loki slaps him in the face, suddenly and without warning. It is as if ice water had been thrown over his head, and Thor gasps. "I will have none of your stubbornness," Loki says. "I recall you driving the servants mad any time you took ill, mostly due to your own stupidity. Now lie still."

As if Thor could move. The attempts at rebellion have drained him of whatever energy he had left, and all he can do is lie there as Loki efficiently strips him bare, and then himself. Thor's cloak he lays on the ground for the both of them.

"Magic," Thor gasps out.

"Now you wish for my tricks to save you?" Loki's breath is icy against Thor's ear. "Well I have none, not here. This hunt was your mad idea. You will have to live with the consequences. Or die by them."

The cold, when Loki lays down next to him, is unbearable. Thor is trapped within Loki's strong arms; trapped under his leg, wrapped around Thor's waist. Bone deep cold, the cold of Niflheim, of the touch of a Frost Giant, of Hela coming to claim you as hers. Thor shivers and shivers and keeps on shivering, and croaks out through chattering teeth, "Please, please."

"Shh," Loki says, his fingers threading into Thor's hair, massaging the back of his neck. "It is all right, Thor." There is a soft, soothing tone in his voice, reminiscent of Thor's favourite nurse when he was a child. The one that would sing him lullabies when he awoke from a nightmare and was too ashamed to admit he was afraid, so he screamed brattishly at her. Nessa saw through it all, and hugged him to her chest and sang to him until he fell back asleep.

Loki hated her, and one day she was gone. Accused of theft and forced to leave in disgrace, although Thor never believed it for a moment. The memory makes him shudder, and Loki's arms tighten around him. Thor buries his face in his neck, the cold made bearable by it being Loki.

It takes him a moment to hear the singing, another moment to realize it is from Loki's mouth, soft and infinitely soothing. Loki's hand runs down his spine and then back up again, and his voice is as low and as sweet as Nessa's. It is enough that Thor drifts off, slowly, into sleep.

His fever breaks at some point. Thor does not know when, but Loki's skin heats up along with it, and soon enough Thor is warm, and still clutching at Loki's form as if he were a child. Loki fusses over him when he blinks his eyes open slowly, pats his chest as if to make sure Thor's heart is still beating. Thor moans when Loki moves away, grabs fruitlessly after him, but he returns soon enough with a bowl in his hands. "Drink," he says sternly. Thor cannot lift his arms, and so Loki forces the liquid down his throat. It is vile, and Thor attempts, unsuccessfully, to spit it out.

"Do not force me to drink that again."

"I can and I will. Your fever may have broken, but there is still poison in your veins." He lifts Thor's palm with one hand and holds a knife with another, slicing it easily through flesh. The blood that oozes out is black and foul smelling. "I have bled the bite more than once, but your blood remains like that."

"You have?"

"You weren't conscious for most of it," Loki says crossly. "If only you would return to that state, you'd be a far more tolerable patient."

"I am patient enough," Thor replies, and tries for a smile. "How many days have we been here?"

"Long enough." He tears a piece of cloth from his cloak and wraps Thor's palm in it, tying the edges neatly together. "You are and have always been a burden upon me." There is an odd sort of fondness in his voice though, and after a moment he reaches out and tucks Thor's hair behind his ear. "You should rest."

"Will you sing to me?"

"I am not your mother, and you are -" His face shatters abruptly, flickers with sorrow, before he swallows and all that is left is Loki: beautiful, unreadable Loki, smooth as glass and filled with nothing more than contempt and madness. "Sleep," this Loki commands. "Before I decide to leave you here to die."

-

"Where are your children," Thor asks, the day that he manages to sit up for more than a mere moment.

"Dead," Loki says. "They are all dead. I could not save them."

"Oh, Loki." Thor reaches out, but Loki steps away, and so his hand grabs nothing but empty air.

"I do not need your pity." He turns and marches away, throws over his shoulder, "As you are clearly well enough, we shall leave tomorrow."

"Aye," is all Thor says.

-

Loki has acquired a steed. Thor decides not to ask, instead allows Loki to help him up onto its back, Loki following suit and settling down in front of him. Mjolnir is still affixed to his belt, he had not even managed to take it in hand before he was felled.

Thor wraps his arms around Loki's waist, his face against his back. Loki stiffens, but merely grabs the horse's reins and kicks his heels, propelling the animal into a slow trot.

Thor has not seen the sun in what feels like months. He closes his eyes and lets it soak his skin, revels in it until he almost drifts away.

"It will take a day if we do not stop," Loki remarks after a while. "Do you require rest?"

It is on Thor's lips to say no, he is fine, but in the end he replies, "I feel a bit weak still, brother. Perhaps a rest would do me good."

Loki nods his head. They stop at a nearby clearing overlooking a lake, its water clear and bright. Thor makes a play of being unable to dismount, and Loki sighs before he helps, almost carrying him to rest beneath a nearby tree. Thor watches him as he leads the horse to the water, returning a moment later with a filled skin that he hands to Thor.

"It might be best if we stayed the night," Thor says mildly, after taking a sip of water.

"Would it?" Loki raises his brow, but the displeasure on his face is betrayed by the slight flush of colour on his cheeks. "You certainly sound well enough."

"I am exhausted."

"Fine then. We will stay."

-

Thor wakes up near dawn, to Loki singing in his ear and his fingers gliding down his hair. He opens his eyes for the briefest of moments and meets Loki's, then closes them again. Loki does not stop.

There is a fire stoking nearby, meat dripping juices from a stick above. Loki says, "I have taken the liberty of hunting us breakfast, since you are so utterly useless. Can you feed yourself?"

Thor shakes his head. Loki sighs, but rises to his feet and returns with a piece of leg that he tears slowly to pieces, feeding each piece to Thor as he does. Thor chews obediently - he cannot tell what manner of animal it is, but it feels as if he has not eaten in years and so it is the most delicious food he has ever had. Loki allows the bare bone to fall to the ground when he's done, holds both hands out to Thor.

Thor licks them clean, savoring both the taste and Lokis fingers in his mouth. "I will fetch you water," Loki says.

Thor pillows his head on his arm, and when Loki returns he sits down next to Thor, crossing his legs. Thor crawls upwards to rest his head in Loki's lap, so Loki can feed him sips of water. "What happened to your children," Thor asks, when his throat is wet enough that he can speak.

"Mention my children again and I shall poison this water and leave you here to die."

Thor turns his face into Loki's belly, presses it against the leather. Loki says nothing for the longest time, but then Thor feels his hand against his back, rubbing soothingly. Thor sighs, and drifts back into sleep.

-

They choose safe routes for the ride back home, and Thor can see Loki retreat back into himself, as if he were a door slowly closing. He tries to make conversation, but Loki responds with terse one word answers, and eventually they both lapse into silence.

Frigga awaits them as they enter the gates, her hands twisting with worry. "Heimdall said you had fallen," she says.

"It was merely a bite. Nothing I could not withstand." He dismounts, Loki following suit with far more grace. Frigga glances from one to the other, and settles her gaze upon Thor finally, her face an unspoken question. On the streets, the crowd has hushed, whispering curiously amongst themselves. Thor draws himself up to full height, tightens his jaw into impassiveness.

When he turns, Loki is gone.

-

The days go by, and Thor only sees Loki in passing. Thor goes to his chambers, but finds them barred, with even the serving girls not allowed past. Thor calls out to him, but is ignored. Rumours spread, that the prince has gone even more mad, that he practices the most foul of magic in the depths of his chambers, that he once again plots the destruction of them all. Even Odin sees fit to mention it to Thor as they feast. "What wretchedness is your brother up to now, do you know?"

Thor slams his mug down onto the table. "Leave him be," he says, and glowers until all curious gazes avert, and even Odin, who is afraid of nothing, let alone his own son, merely returns back to his meal.

Thor finds himself at Loki's door once again, and once again Loki ignores his pleas and the chambers remain shut tight.

It is only when Thor is sparring that Loki emerges one morning, stands at the edge of the courtyard as Thor faces down half of the first guard. His near death has driven him here for the first time in a long while, as has Loki's rejection.

It does not cross Thor's mind that he could lose, until Loki's pale face crosses his line of sight. It is a momentary distraction, but enough that a guard knocks him cleanly off his feat with one large swing of his mallet.

It must be that he is still weak from the poison, for he only regains consciousness in his chambers, to the moon streaming in through the windows rather than the sun.

"Humiliating, is it not? And in front of half of Asgard as well."

Thor clutches at his head, says, "There is no dishonour in losing fairly."

Loki snorts. "That's what they all say." His arms come up to grab at Thor's as Thor tries to sit up. "It was a hard blow," he says. "You might want to rest for a while longer."

They stare at each other for a long moment. "Aye," Thor says finally, and yields. "My head hurts."

Loki presses his palm to Thor's forehead, cooler than any cloth soaked in ice. "Better?" He asks, barely above a murmur.

Thor merely closes his eyes in response, allowing his body to relax, and feels Loki's lips first against one, and then the other of his cheeks. "Rest," Loki says.

"Do not leave me."

"I would never." There is a catch in his voice, a barely disguised hollowness. Thor lifts his arms, and Loki hugs him then, envelopes him inside his reassuring coolness. "Rest," Loki repeats. "I will not leave you."

Two days, and two nights, before neither of them can continue to pretend that Thor still requires attention, that he is not fully recovered. Loki returns to his own chambers without a word, but lays a kiss on Thor's brow before he leaves.

-

They do not speak of it afterwards.

Until the next time, when Thor is injured during battle and rejects all the healers' attempts to administer treatment, staggers to his chambers instead and collapses on his bed, to wait.

Loki glides into the room silently and sits down on the bed next to Thor to brush his hair out of his face.

Thor does not ask again about the children.


End file.
